Are you struggling with your organization’s year-end appeal?
Your first step is to forget almost everything that you’ve ever learned about writing.
Throw out your Strunk & White Elements of Style.
Ignore the admonishing voice of your high school English teacher “tsk tsking” in the back of your head.
Take a big black sharpie to your organization’s statistics and forget all about your illusions of “professionalism.” What I’ll be asking you to put on paper might even strike you as schmaltzy and sentimental.
You’re about to embark upon the most exciting part of this journey…and it’s best to start off with a clean slate.
We’re talking about writing to raise money, plain and simple. It’s not academic, it’s not journalism, and it’s definitely not the business writing you’re probably used to.
Here’s a free template to get you started.
And be sure to enter your year-end appeal in the first annual bitty award!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh Pam, Thanks for this!
I appreciate it! And tweeted it!
It reminds me of Dear Mr. Fancy Pants from Agents of Good.
http://blog.agentsofgood.org/2010/03/21/dear-mr-fancypants/
I loved Mr. Fancypants!
This is something that I put together for my Direct Mail class and thought I’d share.
Of course, we all know that YOUR donors are different and wouldn’t respond to simple language
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Thanks for the great suggestions! ery timely as I’m working on my year-end appeal right now.
Awesome tool Pamela, thank you! Always good to have a reminder and cheat sheet!
Hi, we are looking for someone who can help us in writing a fundraising letter which e can send out to individuals and corporations to raise for the Syrian People, and which is the best way to do this.